Alex Yeadon, Central’s heavyweight, won the dual’s Mike Rollins MVP with a second-round pin of Jacob Emmerson, and the award had a special significance for him.

“It feels great,” Yeadon said. “Last year, Eddie Rojas won, and he’s a good friend of mine. Me and Eddie, we always been there for each other. For him to win at the same weight as I did, it means a lot.”

The second-round bell almost saved Emmerson — for at least a few seconds — but Yeadon got on top and pinned him with two-tenths of a second left in the second period.

“As soon as I got him down, he started flagging,” Yeadon said. “He put up a good fight, but I knew that if I squeezed hard enough, I could get it.”

Yeadon had already dominated the match to that point, taking Emmerson down by the waist in the first period. His pin was brutal, as he grabbed Emmerson by the jaw to turn him over and put him in position for the pin.

“Alex has been solid for us all year,” Penfold said. “He’s flying under the radar. He doesn’t ask for a lot of praise of anything, so that’s why I was glad to vote for him for that. The big guy comes through for us all the time, and he never gets any credit.”

A 285-pound junior who’s ranked sixth in the state in his weight class is hard to overlook, and no one should neglect Yeadon from now on. He’s 19-4, with his name soon to be engraved on a trophy on which it will remain forever.

“We go through all those hard practices that coaches put us through, we go through all that to get our hands raised up in the air,” Yeadon said. “It makes everything worth it. It felt good to shut West up and hand it to them.”

Wednesday night, as fans spilled onto Greeley West's gym floor and team managers rolled back the mats on which the Spartans had just lost a wrestling dual to Greeley Central, Eric Penfold's thoughts sped further and further away. His mind wasn't on his victorious Wildcats, who prevailed in the dual 42-30, nor on Alex Yeadon — the Mike Rollins MVP of this chapter of the crosstown rivalry — nor Andrew Alirez or Andrue Rojas, who were among the many others who wrestled well for Central.

Instead, Penfold, the Wildcats' head wrestling coach, couldn't stop thinking about Frank Alirez, who as Penfold spoke raced to the hospital with an apparently serious knee injury that he suffered in the night's final match. It brought a gruesome end to an entertaining dual and turned Central's depth from "thin" to "dire."

"We're hoping for the best, but I don't know," Penfold said of Frank Alirez's prognosis. "We're dropping like flies. It's getting a little crazy."

The Wildcats were already short 152-pounder Michael Serna Jr., who Penfold said broke his arm last week, and 132-pounder Zeke Alirez, who was held out with a knee injury and missed the chance at his 100th career victory.

“People think I was wresling bears when I was 3 years old.

— Andrew Alirez, Greeley Central sophomore on the expectations he faces after going 45-0 last season

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Frank Alirez was barely 30 seconds into his 106-pound match against Jesus Vasquez when Vasquez tried to roll over on top of him. Alirez's left knee got caught and bent the wrong way, and he immediately cried out in pain. Central's coaches and trainers attended to him and helped him off the mat, then faced the reality that they may have lost another wrestler.

"I wish we could say 'next man up,'" Penfold said. "But we're kinda weeding them out to where there's not really a next man up. Usually at this time of year we've got 30 kids, but we're down to, like, 20. It's been a rough year."

Despite that, Central entered the week ranked No. 3 in 4A by On the Mat, and on Wednesday it wrestled like it.

Andrew Alirez dominates

Andrew Alirez, the Wildcats' star sophomore, was a typhoon in his first match after the first loss of his high school career. He pinned Aizik Hiott just 39 seconds into the 126-pound match and spent the preceding 38 seconds aggressively chasing Hiott around the mat or pile-driving him off of it. It looked like Alirez was exorcising the frustration of that first loss — a 1-0 decision to Jaden Abas of Rancho Bernardo (Calif.) — but he shrugged that thought off like it was one of the opponents he beat on the way to his 71-1 record.

"Losses happen," Alirez said. "It's not the first time I've lost (Alirez had previously lost club matches, but not a high school one). People think I'm this superhuman who hasn't lost, ever. It didn't feel good, but it was just like any other match."

If anything, Alirez was amused by the attention his match against Abas received. His reputation as one of the best wrestlers in the country at his weight class was well-established — 45-0 and a state championship as a freshman did that — but Alirez couldn't help but laugh at how it got slightly out of hand.

"People think I was wrestling bears when I was 3 years old," he said.

But as much as Alirez pushes that perception of him away, he welcomes it. Opponents know who he is long before they meet him on the mat, and in a sport like wrestling where an athlete's confidence is as important as their fitness, that can make all the difference.

"That's why I like it," Alirez said. "Every time I walk into a place, my opponent, they know me."

Rojas, Vasquez put on a show

Once Central decided to wrestle all of its wrestlers heavier than 138 pounds up a weight class, the 182-pound match became this dual's main event. It pitted Central's Andrue Rojas — ranked No. 2 in 4A at 170 pounds — against West's Xavier Vasquez, who's second in 5A at 182 pounds.

They delivered.

Neither wrestler scored in the first period before Rojas got on the board with an escape at the beginning of the second. Vasquez needed several attempts at a single-leg takedown before he succeeded, and Rojas quickly escaped that, too.

Vasquez, despite being several pounds heavier, didn't cede much quickness to Rojas, and he used that and his weight to his advantage. Rojas started the third period on top, but he just couldn't move Vasquez when he got him in a hold. Then Vasquez slipped out for a quick escape and parlayed that immediately into another single-leg takedown. He rode Rojas, racking up points, until there were 30 seconds left to win an 8-3 decision.

"We wanted to see Andrue Rojas wrestle Xavier Vasquez," Penfold said. "Win or lose, those are the matches that X needs for state and that Andrue needs. X is a great kid. I hate losing to him, but I can deal with that."

But now the focus for Central becomes getting healthy and fielding a full team in the remaining weeks before regionals and state. As for the Wildcats and the Spartans, they were rivals for an hour. They won't face each other for awhile, so now they're friends, neighbors and fans again.

"This part of the season lulls for every team," Penfold said. "It's far enough away from regionals, you just got back from break. Even the coaches, we find ourselves lulling through here."

He continued: "But we won't see West again this year. We want them to succeed. If we're on the mat with them, we wanna win. If not, we're rooting for them."

Alex Yeadon, Central’s heavyweight, won the dual’s Mike Rollins MVP with a second-round pin of Jacob Emmerson, and the award had a special significance for him.

“It feels great,” Yeadon said. “Last year, Eddie Rojas won, and he’s a good friend of mine. Me and Eddie, we always been there for each other. For him to win at the same weight as I did, it means a lot.”

The second-round bell almost saved Emmerson — for at least a few seconds — but Yeadon got on top and pinned him with two-tenths of a second left in the second period.

“As soon as I got him down, he started flagging,” Yeadon said. “He put up a good fight, but I knew that if I squeezed hard enough, I could get it.”

Yeadon had already dominated the match to that point, taking Emmerson down by the waist in the first period. His pin was brutal, as he grabbed Emmerson by the jaw to turn him over and put him in position for the pin.

“Alex has been solid for us all year,” Penfold said. “He’s flying under the radar. He doesn’t ask for a lot of praise of anything, so that’s why I was glad to vote for him for that. The big guy comes through for us all the time, and he never gets any credit.”

A 285-pound junior who’s ranked sixth in the state in his weight class is hard to overlook, and no one should neglect Yeadon from now on. He’s 19-4, with his name soon to be engraved on a trophy on which it will remain forever.

“We go through all those hard practices that coaches put us through, we go through all that to get our hands raised up in the air,” Yeadon said. “It makes everything worth it. It felt good to shut West up and hand it to them.”